Paula Wendta sceniczne wizje przeszłości Pomorza
Paul Wendt’s Scenic Visions of Pomerania’s Past

Summary/Abstract: The article compiles and analyzes five stage works by Szczecin writer and merchant Paul Wendt (1840–1919): Colberg 1807 (1863), Sidonia von Borck (1874), Ein deutscher Brutus (1880), Die Rose von Thiessow (1893), and Arkona (1913). All are united by historical themes – from the Middle Ages to the 19th century – and reference to the region with which the author was associated: Pomerania. A popular author during his lifetime, whose works were regularly staged on the most prestigious stages in the region and beyond, today he is virtually forgotten. In addition to recalling his silhouette and his most characteristic works, the article compiles and analyzes a selected textual corpus. With the support of the instrumentarium of classical hermeneutics, extended by the accessories of social literary history, it becomes possible to demonstrate the guiding historical thought of Paul Wendt. This is despite a number of apparent contradictions between the individual works: national, ethnic, social, cultural or religious constructs represented in some of them are seemingly contradicted in others. Yet Paul Wendt’s scenic visions of Pomerania’s past are united by a common denominator of perceptions of the region’s past, strongly oriented towards the writer’s present.

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